Personified Code Source

From a 1958 Russian science journal

Man Ray - The Meeting (Revolving Doors), 1916-17

Ezekiel in action, a political psychological fable

Preparing to transmit the complete works of John Milton in miniature ...

Josef Albers - Circle, 1933

Gong - "The Isle Of Everywhere"

Lyonel Feininger - Edged Spaces, 1954

A study in flatness, compression of depth, two dimensions represented in two dimensions, rendering a planar perspective, how pale and washed-out colors enhance an illusion of flatness that isn't an illusion...

The adventure of course is to stare at this image until the illusion of flatness "springs" into an illusion of three dimensions, whereupon Feininger's title "Edged Spaces" is authenticated.

Harry Bertoia – Untitled, 1943

New Measures of Contextual Understanding: #32 Replacing Philosophy and Religion with Psychology and Linguistics Theory, a Political Enigma and Gibberish Academic Subject Arranged Artfully in a Mostly Horrific Juxtaposition

George Grosz - The Agitator, 1928

Monster from the Id - Forbidden Planet, 1956

1984 Issue #3, "the most offensive story in horror comics" - a note from Terrance Lindall

Terrace Lindall writes:

Warren Magazines were the foremost horror magazines of the 20th century. The success of Warren, can be laid at Archie Goodwin’s door and gave Marvel, DC  & Charlton the desire to reenter the horror field.  Charlton provided a home base for Steve Ditko, Pat Boyette, Rocco Mastroserio and other Warren artists.  Marvel copied Warren when it began its color horror line in 1969. I asked James Warren if I could do a cover for Warren's 1984, but he said that Dubay decides that for 1984. I did end upon the French version of 1984 with a cover that was considered the best ever for Warren. See attached.

Bill Dubay who had a blank check to create anything he wanted in horror comics. Issue 3 of 1984 features the single most offensive story in Warren history, "The Harvest" where corporations have set up various gaming preserves. A father and his son go hunting where it is revealed that they are hunting black people, treated as animals, and are brutally murdered to provide food for the white protagonists. Could it get even worse than that? It does! The ending of the story features the boy shooting a pregnant woman, with the father tearing her baby out of her and talking about serving it as veal.

Here is the image:

Interested in the history of these magazines? See James Warren: Empire of Monsters. Amazon description linked to the image below. Mr. Lindall gets a mention on page 267.

Wassily Kandinsky - Circles in a Circle (1923)

The Neighbor's Wife and Mine (マダムと女房, Madamu to nyōbō) 1931

"Concerto Spaciale"

                                                          - Lucio Fontana, 1949

Kinetic Painting III

Francis Michael Celentano (American, 1928–2016). "Kinetic Painting III," 1967. Acrylic on Masonite with motor. Diameter: 48 inches (121.9 cm). Collection Buffalo AKG Art Museum. Gift of Seymour H. Knox, Jr., 1968 (K1968:8)

The Great Sea Serpent as Seen from the Ship Hydaspes

New Measures of Contextual Understanding: #18 The Interlocutory Medium of Visual Allegory in the Mating Ritual as a Means of Fine Arts Promotion

Modern Rhapsody - Salvador Dalí

"Benefit of Clergy: Some Notes on Salvador Dali" by George Orwell

The Love of Zero, 1928

Plato's "paleo-technocratic" politics: the criteria of Justice and Eudemonia

On the matter of Plato's "paleo-technocratic" politics, the Republic is appropriately (and characteristically) ambiguous. With Plato it is always important to keep context in mind, and in respect to the Republic the purpose of the dialogue is to define "Justice". Approached from this angle, Plato's "utopian" vision clearly shows that moral and political philosophies predicated on the criterion of "Justice" will lead to an insufferable dystopia, with all the gory details amply dilated upon in Plato's descriptions.

Plato's Laws, however, is less ambiguous. Clearly, the fellow comes across as a totalitarian, tyranny-mongering aristocrat. In view of the world he lived in, maybe he has a point. And that is certainly how German political philosophers like Leo Strauss view totalitarianism; that is, they believe, upon "scientific" grounds, that totalitarianism is a desirable state of affairs. One would think Strauss, after finding in America salvation from the Nazi's, would have embraced the land of Jefferson... Does it over-simplify the matter to assert that Strauss is "just another ogre" from the Continent who reviles English freedoms, who loathes the middle-classes, who hates Christianity, and so on?

Meanwhile, rather than "Justice," Plato elsewhere advocates Eudemonia (or "Happiness") as the criterion for Ethics and political philosophy. Clearly, in this matter he agrees with Aristotle. But there is an important distinction. Plato argues for Eudemonia in the next life, in eternity; this world and the meager "good things" in this life are to be eschewed. On the other hand, Aristotle argues for pursuing Eudemonia in this life as well as the next. Aristotle agrees with Plato, however, in stating that the ultimate purpose of happiness in this life is to contemplate God (see link below).

In theory, the distinction attends their disagreements over Plato's theory of forms. What Aristotle did was use the criterion of Eudemonia to argue for a large middle-class. Rather than utilitarian grounds (though as a matter of outcomes he satisfies these requirements), Aristotle seats his concept of Eudemonia in something comparing to Plato's emphasis on coming into contact with God.

"Eudemonia." as Aristotle conceives it, is politically (and Platonically) "writ large" in Locke and Jefferson (again, see the link below for Sir Anthony Kenny on Aristotle's Eudemonia).

Kenny elsewhere has difficulty equating Aristotle's Eudemonia with our English word "Happiness", but of course we have to keep in mind that Kenny is no Lockean or Jeffersonian. He is English, and the English don't expect to be "happy." Ahem. But Eudemonia of course is embedded--and forcefully--in the American Declaration of Independence, and that concept of Happiness, via Locke, Aquinas, Christianity and Judaism, compares precisely with Aristotle's vision.

Aristotle and the Meaning of Eudaimonia

Plato and Aristotle viewing a beautiful landscape

Cardboard Spaceship by Jean-Paul L. Garnier

Cardboard Spaceship is a collection of twenty-one science fiction short stories from Jean-Paul L. Garnier, with an introduction by Michael Butterworth. I've read the manuscript. It a fine collection of stories reflecting contemporary literary trends in science fiction and fantasy.

Click the cover image for more information:

 

"River"